[ckinnan]

We already give Amtrak over $1 billion a year in tax subsidies. The problem is that the company is a monopoly with no incentives to improve service or reduce costs. Passenger rail and subways can make a profit...the New York subway system was built by competing private subway companies, as was the initial national rail network. The problem is the unions and the government now have a stranglehold and there's no competition or innovation.

[Retric]

1 billion a year works out to less than 1/2 of 1% of our road subsidies.

[Prrometheus]

How does that work out on a per-passenger-mile basis?

[Retric]

Annual road subsidies are around:

(~3 trillion miles / year) / (~300billion / year) = 10c/mile or around 3$ per gallon of gas.

Amtrak = $210.31 per passenger per 1,000 miles = 21c/mile but there are significant network effects so some routs are far more subsidized than others.

And with such a long history of investments in cars and roads it's hard to calculate what's the better long term value.